How to Choose the Right Custom Auger Flighting for Your Manufacturing Project

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How to Choose the Right Custom Auger Flighting for Your Manufacturing Project

How to Choose the Right Custom Auger Flighting for Your Manufacturing Project

Auger flighting plays a critical role in conveying, mixing, or moving materials. Whether you’re handling free-flowing grain or sticky sludge, selecting the right flighting design can improve efficiency, reduce wear, and extend equipment life. At Falcon, we specialize in creating custom auger flighting to match your unique requirements.

Helicoid Flighting

One type of custom auger flighting we offer is helicoid flighting, which is formed as a continuous, one-piece helix. It’s made from a square or rectangle bar stock, round bar, or cut plate. Because it’s manufactured as a single strip, it requires fewer welds and offers consistent material flow.

Best For:

Uniform, free-flowing materials such as grain, seeds, pellets, ice, or powders. It is commonly used in agricultural equipment, food processing, and long conveyor runs.

Why Choose It:

Helicoid flighting is cost-effective, efficient for moving materials across long distances, and provides smooth, consistent conveying. Falcon’s custom equipment allows us to produce helicoid flights with tighter tolerances and thicker outside edges than traditional flighting.

Sectional Flighting

Sectional flighting is made from individual, single-turn segments that are formed and welded together. Unlike helicoid flighting, sectional flights maintain uniform thickness from the inner to outer diameter.

Best For:

Heavy-duty and abrasive applications such as cement, fertilizer, limestone, fly ash, and mining aggregates.

Why Choose It:

Sectional flighting allows for greater customization in thickness, materials, and edge design. It’s perfect for high-wear environments where individual flights may need to be routinely replaced. Falcon can produce sectional flights in extremely large diameters and thicknesses for demanding industrial systems.

Ribbon Flighting

Ribbon flights are continuous, large-diameter, one-piece helices formed from bar stock or cut plate. Unlike standard sectional flighting, they are designed with a large inner diameter and a reduced web to promote material flow.

Best For:

Sticky, viscous, or cohesive materials such as sludge, biomass, food products, or materials that tend to build up on a central shaft.

Why Choose It:

The open design improves material release and reduces clogging. Ribbon flighting is frequently used in mixers, blenders, and specialized processing equipment across food, chemical, and industrial applications.

Shaftless Flighting

Shaftless flighting is a heavy-gauge helicoid flight with no center pipe. It runs inside a trough and is driven from one end.

Best For:

Sticky, wet, stringy, or large-lump materials such as sludge, food waste, or textiles that tend to build up on a central shaft. Its open-center design allows higher fill rates while eliminating hanger bearing issues.

Why Choose It:

This style of flighting prevents clogging, allows full product cleanout, and performs well in vertical conveying applications. It also reduces maintenance needs, though longer runs may require additional reinforcement.

Choosing the Right Custom Auger Flighting

With more than 40 years of experience and fully equipped manufacturing facilities, Falcon Industries Inc. builds custom auger flighting to your exact specifications. We can help you design the right auger flighting to maximize everything from material flowability to maintenance requirements.

Call Falcon at (888) 993-2526 or contact us online to discuss your next project and discover how the right flighting design can deliver better results.

Case Study: How Falcon Industries Improved Stainless Steel Auger Flighting for a Food-Processing Manufacturer 

Case Study: How Falcon Industries Improved Stainless Steel Auger Flighting for a Food-Processing Manufacturer 

When it comes to food processing equipment, precision and sanitation are critical. Falcon Industries recently worked with a Minnesota-based food processing equipment manufacturer to overcome costly surface-quality issues in their stainless-steel auger flighting.

The Problem

In 2020, a new customer in the food processing industry reached out to Falcon after becoming frustrated with their previous flighting supplier. The issue? Poor surface quality.

Their stainless steel auger flighting was consistently delivered with deep scratches, gouges, and surface marring created during the helix-forming process. These imperfections weren’t just cosmetic; they would later be welded into auger assemblies that come into contact with raw meat and required a food-grade polish. Any scratch could trap bacteria, cause corrosion, and fail to meet sanitation standards.

The customer’s team was spending too much time manually polishing each auger to achieve a smooth, food-safe finish. This process was not only labor-intensive but also risked thinning or damaging the material. They needed a solution that would improve surface quality from the start and reduce their polishing workload.

Falcon Industries’ Solution

After the customer contacted Falcon, our sales and production teams immediately began exploring options. After several discussions, we proposed a combination of specialized techniques:

  • Taping Sectional Press Dies: We applied durable protective tape to the press dies to prevent metal-on-metal contact. This eliminated scratches and surface marring caused by friction, imperfections, or debris.
  • Stainless Steel Forming Plates: We installed abrasion-resistant forming plates on both sides of the flight to shield the surface during forming and maintain a flawless finish.
  • Pre-Polished Finish: We made the flights from laser-cut stainless steel, pre-polished to a #4 finish before forming, minimizing the customer’s polishing time and post-processing needs.

How We Helped

The results were immediate and impressive. The customer’s polishing team reported that cleanup time was reduced dramatically, allowing them to move more efficiently through the auger assembly process.

Not only did the customer achieve a true food-grade finish faster, but they also eliminated material loss due to over-polishing. The improved surface quality helped them meet strict food safety standards and increased confidence in the durability and hygiene of their equipment.

Partner with Falcon Industries

From food processing to material handling, Falcon Industries specializes in manufacturing stainless steel auger flighting and components that meet the highest standards. Whether you’re looking to solve a production challenge or improve equipment reliability, our team is ready to help.

Contact Falcon today online or at (888) 993-2526 to discuss your next project and discover how we can deliver better results.

Case Study: How Falcon Industries Helps Centrifuge Manufacturers Improve Safety and Efficiency with Custom Helicoid Flighting 

Case Study: How Falcon Industries Helps Centrifuge Manufacturers Improve Safety and Efficiency with Custom Helicoid Flighting 

Falcon Industries regularly partners with leading manufacturers to solve real-world production challenges. Two clients, both makers of centrifuges for the mining industry, recently turned to Falcon to help address ongoing problems with custom helicoid flight forming, alignment, and safety during assembly.

The Problem

Both centrifuge manufacturers were facing similar issues. Their equipment wasn’t designed for continuous helical forming, so the custom helicoid flighting they produced didn’t always line up properly during assembly. Their in-house processes created flights with twisted ends and misaligned sections. Workers had to grind or reshape parts to make them fit, significantly slowing down production.

The in-house process also created serious safety risks. Since the equipment wasn’t designed to produce these parts, operators had to handle metal in unintended ways, often dangerously close to moving press components. This raised the concern of potential injuries, and management knew it was time to find a safer, more reliable way to get the job done.

Falcon Industries’ Solution

We started by taking a close look at each company’s design.

While working with one of the in-house teams, we discovered that the flights they were using didn’t actually match the real geometry of the finished parts. Our team investigated—visiting the facility, taking precise measurements, and reviewing actual parts. Using that information, we developed proper cut sizes and a refined forming process that consistently produced accurately aligned segments using Falcon’s specialized forming equipment. Unlike standard presses, our machines are built to form a true helical shape. Each section came out precisely formed, so the flight ends lined up cleanly with minimal adjustment.

How We Helped

Both companies now rely on Falcon Industries for ongoing production because we helped deliver measurable results:

  • Enhanced safety: Outsourcing flight forming to Falcon eliminated unsafe manual forming practices and reduced operator risk.
  • Improved alignment: Flights arrived ready to weld, cutting rework time and streamlining assembly.
  • Reduced production time: Properly formed parts allowed welding teams to complete builds faster without compromising quality.

As one engineer noted, “The main improvement you offered us is better alignment of flight ends […] Now, the ends of each flight line up very closely from end to end, making them significantly easier to install.”

Partner with Falcon Industries

When accuracy, safety, and performance matter, Falcon Industries delivers. Our team specializes in forming high-quality custom helicoid flighting for industries that demand precision.

Contact Falcon today online or at (888) 993-2526 to learn how we can help you improve your process, protect your workers, and save you valuable production time.

Common Signs That Your Auger Needs Replacement

Common Signs That Your Auger Needs Replacement

If you’re noticing that your auger is looking worn along the edges, with tapered or bent tips, or just isn’t performing as optimally as it should, then there’s a chance that it needs to be repaired or replaced. Knowing when it’s time to get a replacement auger or when to get it repaired can prevent a significant amount of downtime and improve your productivity. Here are some of the signs that it’s time to replace your auger or replace your flighting. 

Tapered or Bent Tips

One of the most obvious signs that your auger has experienced significant wear and tear is if the flight has tapered or bent tips. This typically occurs at the discharge end of the auger and can present in loss of throughput. Once flighting tips are bent, they cannot efficiently discharge material. When this happens, the auger needs to be repaired or replaced to return it to its normal productivity. 

Minimized Throughput and Plugging

Have you noticed that the throughput of your auger–the amount of material that passes through a system or process–has been less, or even stopped? This is typically a sign that the auger has been damaged or has experienced enough significant wear that material is starting to get stuck within the system. Sometimes these damages can be repaired quickly, but other times a replacement auger is necessary, depending on the extent of the damage.

Decreased Flighting Diameter

Augers typically experience more wear along the edges, which causes the flighting to slowly decrease in diameter over time. Replacements are necessary when the edges have been worn down so much that the thickness of the spiral has changed significantly. As wear increases, the efficiency of the auger decreases, and so does the efficiency of your system. This is seen primarily in the clearance between the outside of the spiral and the inside of the auger barrel. A small clearance in this area is necessary for proper auger operation, but as this clearance increases due to wear, more material (especially fine material) begins to fall between the spiral and the barrel or the trough.

Looking for an auger manufacturer?

Falcon Industries Inc. doesn’t just manufacture new augers and auger flighting–we also provide repair and replacement services for augers that are worn down or damaged, including replacement auger. Check out our website to learn more about our services!

Falcon Industries is now offering cone-rolled flighting products.

Falcon Industries is now offering cone-rolled flighting products.

Falcon Industries is delighted to announce our new partnership with FLITECH®, a leader in cone-rolled/laminated helicoid flighting manufacturing. FLITECH designs and manufactures a wide range of high-quality products with consistent dimensional accuracy. Together with FLITECH, Falcon Industries has expanded our product offerings to our customers, continuing a long history of providing customers with quality products and services.

The cone-rolled/laminated helicoid flighting from FLITECH is a continuous one-piece helix formed from a continuous steel roll. The SR TYPE SPIRALS are formed in sizes from 1/8” up to 3/4″ of thickness in carbon steel and from 1/8” up to 1/2″ in stainless steel 304/316. FLITECH also manufactures a unique SH FLIHARD material with a hardness of 300 HB in similar dimensions.

FLITECH’s cone-rolling process hardens the flighting to give excellent durability and provides a high-quality surface finish and slight forward incline of the blade. Falcon will continue to offer our wound-over mandrel helicoid flight, where the minimal loss of thickness at the outer edge is essential to the performance of your equipment.

If you are interested in this new style of helicoid, please provide details of your unique requirements below. We will then provide you with a price estimate and a commitment to servicing your needs.

  1. What is the biggest problem we can solve for you by becoming your source for this type of helicoid flight?
  2. How do you usually order this type of flight?
    1. Flight only?
    2. Flight on a tube?
  3. Do you fall within our standard size ranges?
  4. Are your requirements unique to every release, or are the requirements routine?
  5. What are your purchasing needs?
    1. Estimated annual use? Release quantities? Lead time required on releases?
    2. Do you have stocking requirements for emergency shipments?